The sphere opposite to it is called meretricious with such women, and adulterous with such men; and as such men and women are in hell, this sphere is from thence: but of this sphere there is also much variety, and hence there are several species of it; and such a species is attracted and appropriated by a man (_vir_) as is agreeable to him, and as is conformable and correspondent with his peculiar temper and disposition.

It is this same taste, which, in that solemn commemoration of the death of their king, the _service solennel_ for Louis XVI. contrived to introduce a species of affected parade, -- a detailed and theatrical sort of grief, -- a kind of meretricious mummery of sorrow, which banished all the feelings, and almost completely destroyed the impression which such a scene in any other country would inevitably have produced.

Moreover, as the parties 'subsequent cohabitation could not be termed "meretricious," and the relationship between the parties was not tainted by the fact that the male partner was married to someone else at that time; (2) an agreement between a cohabitating adult couple is enforceable to the extent it is not based upon a relationship proscribed by law, or upon a promise to marry.

From p. 63 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: "He was a son of God--a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that--and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty."

Isaac Asimov, when confronted with this word, did not know what it meant. This was difficult for him to except, so he asked the man who said it to repeat it again. The man said "Meretricious?", and Asimov responded, "And a happy new year".